Cultura para Todos: Colombian Community Arts... and politics

Neighborhood in Bosa, a municipality of Bogotá, Colombia, taken from the rooftop of Chiminigagua Cultural Foundation (Photo by Susan Appe)

The door is wide open, people in and out, children running around. You can hear someone strumming a guitar somewhere. There are bright colors all over, stilts on the floor, masks hanging on the wall, art in every corner. The first time I visited the Chiminigagua Cultural Foundation, I was able to walk directly into the building. This was a welcome refreshing change — in Bogotá, Colombia, entering a building can involve a bag check, having to explain what business you have there, sometimes a pat down and leaving your i.d. The Chiminigagua Cultural Foundation, whose name comes from an indigenous God of the creation of music, is on the southern outskirts of Bogotá in a locality called Bosa and, despite the fact it is an area known for crime and rumored paramilitary activity, the community arts center does not let security issues nor threats affect its work or its warm, friendly atmosphere.

Bosa is one of 20 local municipalities of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital city, with a population of eight million and growing due to mass displacement caused by the country’s violent political conflict — a civil war involving rebel guerrilla groups, paramilitary militias and drug trafficking. Bosa is a hot spot for community activity. Religious, youth, civil and indigenous movements grew between the ‘70s and ‘80s and since then Bosa has become a center for cultural groups. The Chiminigagua Cultural Foundation has been organizing and presenting community arts and social activities for more than 20 years now and is considered one of the most mature community arts organizations in Colombia. Profiling the foundation highlights some of the issues that affect arts organizations in Colombia, such as the country’s political violence, state intervention in the cultural sector and the formation of new cultural legislation since the 1991 Constitution.

This is the story of how Chiminigagua found a way to engage in the shaping of the cultural sector’s political structures and made a name for itself as one of the most politically active cultural organizations in the country.

Cultural Organizations and the Conflict

Chiminigagua Cultural Foundation in Bosa, Bogotá (Photo by Susan Appe - click image to enlarge)

Any cultural organization in Colombia has had to deal with the implications of the country’s 40-year-old conflict, whether they address it through works of art, decisions to take political sides or remain neutral, or consideration of safety issues. The conservative administration of the current president, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, has made its priorities clear by opting, according to many Colombians, for military spending rather than meeting social needs. Elected fairly with a majority of the vote, he has convinced much of the Colombian population that military aggression is the only way to “win” the conflict. Supported by the current U.S. administration — politically and financially — Uribe has in the last year re-declared war following a car bomb in Bogotá that injured several soldiers and has been blamed on guerilla forces.

As can be imagined, this is a frustrating reality for cultural organizations in Colombia. With the re-declaration of war, they are reminded of the reality that Colombia is engaged in a violent conflict, something that Uribe has been relatively successful in keeping out of the cities. It also reminds them of a somewhat inevitable outcome: state funding for the cultural sector will be cut… again.

Chiminigagua Cultural Foundation

Chiminigagua has the only theater group in the world that specializes in stilts on wheels (Photo courtesy of Chiminigagua Cultural Foundation - click image to enlarge)

Community arts organizations have a hard time sustaining themselves because cultural projects have had a low priority in state funding. Organizations have little formal training — artistic nor administrative — and are being forced to adopt a new shift to privatization of financial support without really understanding what this means. Cultural organizations have been hesitant to link themselves with or engage in discussion with the state about this shift. In spite of all this, the Chiminigagua Cultural Foundation has had tremendous success with programming, which includes arts workshops for children and youth, as well as a 25-person theater group that is contracted by schools and other community groups for performance. It also produces several arts festivals throughout the year that include poetry, oral narration and music and its most important festival, the National and International Artistic Festival of Popular Culture. All of the foundation’s performances are dramatic, featuring actors and extraordinary homemade costumes. Currently, it is the only theater group in the world that specializes in stilts on wheels, both in theaters and street festivals.

When I approached foundation personnel about this article, they were pleased to talk to me and were eager to share the foundation’s philosophy and mission as well as its successes. Its mission is simple: “to provide access to culture to everyone.” While they usually focus on Bosa and other municipalities geographically close and of low-income status, they have managed to take their mission around Colombia, to other countries in the region and to Europe.

Because of the troubling economic situation in Bosa, unemployment and youth boredom are high. Young people opt to drink and use drugs and will often get sucked into the political conflict in the country. The foundation has been able to engage them in its programming and theater group, offering what it calls a “healthy option.” Many of the theater members described the foundation as being “like a family” and because they are all from Bosa, they know the community, its people and its culture. All theater members begin working at the foundation as volunteers and then eventually are eligible for a stipend.

In the beginning, it took some time to get the public interested in the foundation. One of the theater members, Carolina Sifuentes, described Bosa’s population as “men preferring to go out to drink and women staying home to watch telenovelas,” the Latin American version of soap operas. It took some publicity and persistence, but once the people came, they continued to come. Now there are always lines for the events, which are always free. The great number of people attending has allowed the foundation to consider expanding. They hope to build a Cultural Complex within the next five years that would be a larger space and a training center with a larger theater in Bosa. They have received a gift of land for the complex and are currently exploring international funding sources for its construction.

Community Arts… AND Politics

Street festival in Bosa (Photo courtesy of Chiminigagua Cultural Foundation - click image to enlarge)

The cultural sector in Colombia is very fragmented, with little coordination or information flow among the organizations. Chiminigagua Cultural Foundation has begun to remedy these challenges and in doing so has begun to engage in politics. It has welcomed coordination with state agencies such as the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Transportation. Many of the foundation’s theater members describe the general mentality of Colombian artists as dismissive of the state. They often avoid working with the government and keep it at a distance. Chiminigagua Cultural Foundation was one of the first community arts organizations to challenge the state through dialogue and focus groups. It has begun to participate in the formation of cultural policies and legislation that affects cultural organizations. The government has now created Cultural Councils, guaranteed by law, that are made up of representatives of the state, cultural organizations and other entities from civil society. According to Chiminigagua Artistic Director Cesar Grande, the foundation was at the forefront of this huge accomplishment. Grande told me, “We have had trouble with politics, mostly because we were the first ones to get involved with politics.” He says the foundation truly believes that through politics and culture it can help to socially transform Colombia.

When Grande and I were talking about artists and Colombian politics I had to ask: As artists in a country coping with a violent conflict and as part of a cultural organization that engages in politics, have they ever felt threatened? No, said Grande, speaking candidly about the fact that Bosa is said to have paramilitaries linked to the army and responsible for as much as 75 percent of human-rights violations in the country. Regardless, Grande said, this has never affected the foundation’s work or staff. He is confident that paramilitaries attend events at Chiminigagua and that some of the their children take workshops. He said, “… we trust that the foundation is something positive for the community and that paramilitaries do not cause a threat.”

One of the foundation’s founders, Venus Albeiro Silva Gómez, was perhaps the drive behind the foundation taking an unfamiliar role for cultural organizations in state politics. Silva has been elected to serve in the National Congress, first in 2002 and reelected in 2006. In his position as congressman, he has advocated cultural and artistic community work as a vehicle for Colombia’s development. His election was a huge accomplishment for the cultural community. Silva has brought cultural and artistic issues to the national agenda, pressuring for a National Theatre Law as well as lower taxes for cultural organizations. His position in Congress and his left-wing politics have, however, brought threats to his life, something that is an unfortunate reality for Colombian politicians. Grande reported that at one point he was living in the foundation’s building in Bosa but has since had to leave for the organization’s safety. While not part of the daily activities of the foundation, Silva is still indirectly involved in many of its programs. The foundation and the cultural sector in general see him as their biggest ally in national government.

Has the leap to politics been worth it for the foundation? Grande says the dialogue with the state has been beneficial. Just recently there was a threat that the Ministry of Culture was going to cut all funding to the 35 theater spaces it supports in Bogotá, one of which is the foundation’s theater in Bosa. The Ministry wanted the theaters to look for international support for their spaces. However, this drastic shift to funding privatization is a disservice to the entire cultural sector in Colombia because cultural organizations are not prepared to look for funding on their own. They need capacity building in fundraising, and legislation must be put in place that fosters private-sector donations. Under the leadership of the Chiminigagua Cultural Foundation, the 35 groups in charge of the theater spaces in Bogotá banded together for the first time to contest the Ministry’s proposal. Grande was satisfied with the results and, for the time being, the theater spaces will continue to receive some limited funding from the Ministry. Grande acknowledges that the foundation will be forced to look for corporate sponsorship, but he doubts this will provide sustainable funding sources, asking rhetorically, “What do multinationals care about the development of Colombia?”

The "Park for the Arts," outdoor community artspace built by community members and Chiminigagua Cultural Foundation (Photo by Susan Appe - click image to enlarge)

Grande is an inspiring presence with a wealth of knowledge about the culture. He has participated in the foundation for 20 years, since he was five years old. When talking about the politics in his country and the role of a community arts organization, he repeatedly says, “It’s complicated.” While we were talking, Grande was called by several people to head outside. I followed him to the park and we continued our conversation before meeting up with 100 or more community members waiting for him to MC a dance contest. I did my best to keep up with him, watching him make a smooth transition from politically charged community artist to passionate and obviously well-liked leader. I spent a few minutes looking on, watching children and youths dancing, parents and other community members laughing and clapping. I wondered what they would have been doing otherwise.

Luis, a fifteen-year-old theater member at the dance contest, was kind enough to walk me to the bus stop, reminding me that it is dangerous after dark. He waited with me for the bus and we spoke of why I was visiting Bosa and laughed a bit about some of the children’s dancing techniques. As I boarded the bus, Luis made sure I was coming to next week’s performance. “Will there be artists on stilts on wheels?” I asked. “Of course!” he said smiling. On the long bus ride back to Bogotá, the sense of exhilaration I felt was unmatched. If not for Chiminigagua Cultural Foundation’s decision to be political and work with the state, I couldn’t imagine such an inspiring and vivid product. Political participation isn’t merely tangential to community arts, nor solely a justified means to the end — funding. Instead, political participation, especially in a climate like Bosa’s, is what keeps the arts relevant and thriving in our communities.

Susan Appe is currently a Fulbright Student Fellow in Bogotá, Colombia.  She has a Master’s degree in arts management with a focus in community arts and a Graduate Certificate in not-for-profit Management from the University of Oregon. Her research interests include the arts in humanitarian work, nongovernmental organizations, cultural community development and international cultural policy.

Original CAN/API publication: January 2007